Video-EEG monitoring and epilepsy surgery in the elderly

The ongoing experience with Video-EEG epilepsy monitoring in younger patients is more and more used in the evaluation of older patients. In this work we present the diagnostic value of epilepsy monitoring and the outcome after epilepsy surgery in this particular subgroup. It shows, that video-EEG monitoring is a suitable tool to differentiate non-epileptic from epileptic seizures. In the latter, the semiological and electroencephalographic data regularly enable the concrete definition of the epileptogenic zone in older patients, too. The amount of seizure free patients after epilepsy surgery is somewhat lower if compared to a younger control group but still higher if compared with solely medically treated patients. The amount of operation related complications seems to be somewhat higher in older patients, requiring a careful risk evaluation.